Defeated Orban Re-Elected Fidesz Leader

(MENAFN) Viktor Orban, who lost Hungary's premiership following the April 12 election after 16 years in power, secured another term Saturday as leader of his Fidesz party at a congress that delivered a near-unanimous mandate.

Some 729 delegates voted in favor of returning the 62-year-old to the party's helm, with no votes cast against and eight abstentions recorded.

Addressing the defeat head-on, Orban said he had accepted personal responsibility and convened the congress as a direct consequence. He warned that Hungary was drifting toward political turbulence, though struck a defiant tone, asserting that "the future belongs to the patriots," according to the Magyar Hirlap news website.

Orban laid out a candid post-mortem of Fidesz's electoral failings, citing a flawed campaign strategy that underestimated voter turnout and the strength of opposition forces, hemorrhaged support among younger voters and was undermined by what he described as foreign-controlled algorithms.

With Fidesz now transitioning from governing party to opposition after a decade and a half in government, Orban called for a fundamental reinvention, urging the movement to restructure itself as a grassroots "movement party." He outlined planned reforms to broaden the party's leadership structure and strengthen its presence at the local level.

"Let's fix Fidesz from the basement to the attic by September," he said.

Orban's ouster came at the hands of current Prime Minister Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party swept the parliamentary elections, bringing an end to one of Europe's longest-running populist

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